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Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#31

Post by zfg »

pvg wrote: post #25
zfg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42907961 The problem is that so much of the tech industry is now precisely about politics and power. The problem is that so much of the tech industry it is now explicitly and directly connected to it. If Hacker News doesn't have the wherewithal to face up the these realities then it really should think about a name change. Maybe "Happy Fun News" or something.

I don't understand what that's supposed to be denying. I'm just explaining how HN works. The connection between tech and politics is hardly new and it's discussed on HN all the time. I mentioned there is a current events discussion on the front page right now and I got it wrong - there are two, and that's not counting the many places these topics come up in other threads. I just don't see how you arrive at this 'look…

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#32

Post by ChrisArchitect »

As said elsewhere about aversion to some current events topics etc, it's also not entirely flagging off the face of the earth. In some of those examples you shared, they had a hundred upvotes and numerous comments - that's not nothing. That's hundreds of ppl that saw the story and/or engaged, before maybe the discussion devolved leading to more flagging. Other examples with high activity current event stories are just duplicates and there are other submissions of the same/similar story that are getting eyeballs (and maybe also eventually being flagged but they're there anyway). Stuff moves fast around here, but all is not lost.

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#33

Post by pvg »

zfg wrote: post #31
pvg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand what that's supposed to be denying. I'm just explaining how HN works. The connection between tech and politics is hardly new and it's discussed on HN all the time. I mentioned there is a current events discussion on the front page right now and I got it wrong - there are two, and that's not counting the many places these topics come up in other threads. I just don't see how you arrive at this 'look…

[flagged]

With no undue disrespect, you just got here. Might want to give it a bit of time so the working part makes more sense. You haven't as much as responded to anything written here beside repeating the same somewhat unclear and seemingly inaccurate thing (there is current events political discussion on HN right this second) over and over.

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#34

Post by pvg »

belter wrote: post #28

[flagged]

You've submitted 8 generic news articles just in the last 24 hours or so. Do you believe all of them should have had a separate discussion? That would be nearly one third of the HN front page. In that period there were at least two such threads there with plenty of hang time. That might not be enough for you but it's hardly some conspiracy of silence.

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#35

Post by jacquesm »

pvg wrote: post #33
zfg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

With no undue disrespect, you just got here. Might want to give it a bit of time so the working part makes more sense. You haven't as much as responded to anything written here beside repeating the same somewhat unclear and seemingly inaccurate thing (there is current events political discussion on HN right this second) over and over.

I've come out of self imposed retirement from the shitshow that this site has become just to point out that how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution.

OP is right in that HN uses the 'it's been flagged' excuse to avoid facing some very uncomfortable truths, and that is fractionally why the world is currently being destabilized to a degree that we have not seen in the last 90 years or so. We - all of us - in the tech world are part and parcel and in many ways instrumental in this, and dare I say guilty as well. We're chasing the $ but we're losing sight of our impact on the world.

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#37

Post by AnimalMuppet »

zfg wrote: post #29
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe so. But I still don't have to talk about it here . There's lots of places to talk about politics, and Musk, ad nauseum. HN is supposed to be about something else. Politics may be destroying a large number of things right now; I don't want it to destroy this site too.

Politics is a major part of the tech industry now. It's what it has become. Building any kind of ethical framework for hardware and software engineering necessitates looking at the ugly side. If Hacker News is genuinely not up to that then it's falling short.

It may be falling short of what you think it should be. A bunch of the rest of us don't think that, though.

You may feel strongly about what you think we should do, but you don't get to tell the rest of us what the site should be about. You don't get to tear up the community guidelines and write your own.

Let HN be what it is. If that doesn't match what you want, go find somewhere else that does.

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#38

Post by AnimalMuppet »

jacquesm wrote: post #35
pvg wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With no undue disrespect, you just got here. Might want to give it a bit of time so the working part makes more sense. You haven't as much as responded to anything written here beside repeating the same somewhat unclear and seemingly inaccurate thing (there is current events political discussion on HN right this second) over and over.

I've come out of self imposed retirement from the shitshow that this site has become just to point out that how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution. OP is right in that HN uses the 'it's been flagged' excuse to avoid facing some very uncomfortable truths, and that is fractionally why the world is currently being destabilized to a degree that we have not seen…

> how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution.

Perhaps not. But a 22-day-old account saying, over and over, "this site should be something else" is... a bit tone-deaf? A bit presumptuous? You don't show up in our community and immediately tell us that the whole purpose of our community should be what you demand. ("You" meaning zfg, not jacquesm.)

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#39

Post by belter »

pvg wrote: post #34
belter wrote: post #28

[flagged]

You've submitted 8 generic news articles just in the last 24 hours or so. Do you believe all of them should have had a separate discussion? That would be nearly one third of the HN front page. In that period there were at least two such threads there with plenty of hang time. That might not be enough for you but it's hardly some conspiracy of silence.

You US Gov site for passports is down. Keep calling it generic

You are in the middle of a full blown state coup....

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910525

Re: Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?

#40

Post by jacquesm »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come out of self imposed retirement from the shitshow that this site has become just to point out that how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution. OP is right in that HN uses the 'it's been flagged' excuse to avoid facing some very uncomfortable truths, and that is fractionally why the world is currently being destabilized to a degree that we have not seen…

> how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution. Perhaps not. But a 22-day-old account saying, over and over, "this site should be something else" is... a bit tone-deaf? A bit presumptuous? You don't show up in our community and immediately tell us that the whole purpose of our community should be what you demand. ("You" meaning zfg, not jacquesm.)

Fair but I don't think account age should be left isolated when discussing these things and saying 'you just showed up' for a genuine - and frankly, long overdue - discussion on a pretty pressing issue is out of place if we are supposed to be the 'better alternative'. The time for sticking our fingers in our ears and pretending everything is great is long past and given HN's own issues with finding the balance between doing our jobs, aiming for something better and doing so responsibly we should be very wary of falling into the trap that allows us to pretend nothing is going on because all relevant discussions get flagged. That's abdication and the tech world is super good at this.

zfg raises a valid point. So either debate them on merit or let it go (downvote, move on, whatever) but don't pull rank without engaging the actual subject matter. They are pointing out that HN does not work in this sense and it is - at least to me - abundantly clear that they have a point. For myself, I've given up. I've seen the most idiotic exchanges go without counter because I suspect more people have given up. zfg has not given up, yet, in part because they have just joined. They are still in the honeymoon phase and probably can't imagine why HN would be actively discouraging discussion around some of the most important issues facing the tech world today.

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